China, the European Union and the Fragile World Order

Abstract

Abstract The EU (European Union) and China are the two arguably most unusual powers in today's world: the EU as the most integrated regional association of states and China as the largest developing great power. As the post‐Cold War American‐led liberal world order is facing challenges from forces unleashed by the power transition and power diffusion in the international system, this article will look into the order‐shaping roles of the EU and China, to identify their respective visions of a desirable world order and to conceptualize how the EU and China can make themselves ‘building blocks’ of a working world order through parallel, complementary and concerted order‐shaping.